godly women when with child YOu that have tasted the goodness of the Lord and have given up your selfe to him must upon this occasion sequester your self awhile from all the incumbrances of secular affairs and deny your self of the usual attendance of any company and entring into your chamber shut the door and give attendance to these things Commune with thy own heart Ps 4.4 77.6 and let thy spirit make diligent search after those secret sins that yet lurk in thy bosome rub up thy memory of former sins even those committed in the dayes of thy ignorance and vanity remember the wormwood and gall I mean how sin was to thee upon thy first conversion Lam. 3.40 Prov. 20.27 remember thy relapses any time since into sins formerly confessed and bewailed and consider thy unfruitfulness and unsuitable returns to God for his rich mercy in Christ how little thou hast adorned his Gospel but rather rendered Godliness less amiable by thy frequent miscarriages In a word examine thy senses members thoughts and inward parts of all their several evils and renew thy repentance in that serious and humble manner the Lord requires For your sins are in some respects more provoking to God than the wickednesse of the wicked More dishonourable to his name more grievous to his holy Spirit more displeasing to the good Angels more advantageous to the evill Angels more scandalous to the world and more unbeseeming your principles and heavenly hopes Therefore as David having sinned against God Recordari vol o tranactas fóeditates meas carnales corruptiones animi non quòd eas amem sed ut amem te Deus meus Augustin in Confess lib. 2. c. 1. wrote many penitentiall Psalms and shed many a tear day and night And Solomon having finned foulely after God had appeared to him wrote his recantation and penitentiall review of his life in the Book of Ecclesiastes And the woman after she was pardoned washed our Saviours feet with her teares and spent as histories tell us many years after in bewailing her sins So go you and do likewise remembring the holy Apostle who sometimes shames himselfe for the sins of his unconverted estate sometimes bewails the remainders of corruption that abode within him And renew also your resolutions of better obedience and more circumspect walking in all manner of conversation Chide your heart for its deceitfullnesse charge your soul to be more mindfull of the vows of God that are upon you Double upon your selfe all possible obligations to recover what you have lost and to stir up in you those things that are ready to dye Thus you should persevere in the work of confession lamentation and supplication till you find some such answerable effect in your heart as may assure you that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Cor. 15.58 As our book of Martyrs relates of that famous Martyr Mr. John Bradford that he could not leave a duty till he had found communion with Christ in the duty i. e. till he had brought his heart into a more holy frame He could not leave Confession till he had found his heart touched broken and humbled for sin nor Petition till he had found his heart taken with the beauty of the things he desired nor could he leave Thanksgiving till he had found his spirit enlarged and his soul quickened in the return of praises (a) Nunquam abs te absque te recedo Bernard Medit. Like that of devout Bernard who saith of himselfe that he never went away from God without God This is indeed the genius of every Saint who have known by experience how good t is for them to draw nigh to God And you have surely found God in the duty if you find your heart more out of love with your selfe and the world more humbled for sins past more afraid of every appearance of evil for the future and more delighting in all those duties that may promote your graces and weaken your corruptions in you But remember that the duties of humiliation confession supplication must be therefore delighted in because they leade us to God And then do we serve him aright when we have learned to delight not in our services but in God Wherefore raise your heart to that heavenly frame of thank fulnesse and praise to God Rev. 19.5 Luk. 2.13 for the eternall contrivances of his wisdome and purposes of grace in giving Jesus Christ Psal 33.1 for the fulnesse of his promises the freenesse of his covenant the sufficiencie of his word the blessed operations of his Spirit the transforming power of his grace Yea let all that is within you blesse his holy name for pardon of sin Psal 103.1 2 3. Psal 139.14 Rev. 15.3 for all other benefits whether deliverances from evill or giving you any thing that pertains to life and godlinesse for any good hope through grace of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled 1 Peter 1.3 4 5. reserved in the heavens for you to which you are kept by the power of God And really when I consider that the whole world lyes in wickednesse I cannot but praise God in your behalf who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvellous light and numbred you among the faithfull The Lord adde to your number inable you by cheerfull and thankfull submission to Christs easy yoke to shew forth his praises Another good step towards your preparation for death would be not onely to get a heart truly penitent for sin and thankfull to God 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 4.8.13 Col. 3.14 1 Tim. 2.15 1 Pet. 4.8 2 Pet. 1.7 Rev. 2.19 but also charitable towards all men that is to be of an inoffensive and courteous disposition to the wicked affectionate to the godly and compassionate to the needy But I meane especially this last of having bowels of mercy to them that be in want which by way of eminency is commonly called Charity as charity in the Greek is called grace Implying that there is no grace without charity no evidence of the truth of our charity without liberality For t is utterly a fault among many rich Ladies and gentlewomen who yet professe religion that they care not what they lay out in foolish gaming immodest dresses exotick garments c. But as if God had no right in any of their wealth they are loath to understand the duty of charity or to part with any thing considerable to pions uses except some small matter to them whom they cannot for shame deny ◠Tim. 6.17 18. Now the Apostle hath directed us to charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in God that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to commucicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Let this full Scripture serve instead
â—â—perbissiâ—oruÌ„ origo Plin. nat â—ist l. 7. c. 7. The child in my womb is made of the like substance as I was And though I now have growth strength beauty or comelinesse yet I was once imperfect enough when I was newly begotten of man and conceived in the womans womb Alas how vile are those materials of which my body was made Scripture draws a veyl of modest and metaphorical expressions over this unsightly act of generation And when I consider oh my soul the poor original of my body Alas what preheminence have I herein above a beast what cause to abhorre all thoughts of pride and to walk humbly all my dayes If the Peacock let fall his plumes when he beholds his black feet have not I cause to be cast down with a less esteem of my self Phil. 3.21 when I consider my vile body In nothing more vile then in its first coagulation of ignoble matter MEDITATION 5. Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh Job 10.11 thou hast fenced me with bones and sinews Though in regard of the matter and manner of my generation my body is no better then a bag of flegm a lump of blood a moistened clod of earth yet when I raise my mind to the work of my Creator who fashioned me round about covered me in my mothers womb and formed me in the lowest parts of the earth I have then no cause to say to my Father what hast thou begotten or to my Creator why hast thou made me thus If I may in every creature see some prints and footsteps of the wisdome power and goodnesse of God in their formation production and conservation of their kind in a continual succession for the use of man how much more cause have I to search out this work of God in which there is as much of excellency curiosity and exactnesse of skill as in all the creation besides Much is said by Philosophers Physicians Anatomists c. concerning this great secret of Nature the Child in the Womb. They speak with much probability and rational conjecture of the manner and matter of generation conceptions of the very day when the womb by its natural heat begins to operate towards it when it receives its first change into a fleshy substance what day the brain heart and liver begin to be distinguished and when it receives a humane shape in other parts though the whole be no bigger then a small flie Also how it is nourished and in what place and posture it lies if male and in what if female What day it receives by the gift of God a living soul and when it begins to stir and calcitrate in the womb c. But the further I dive and search into this matter the more I am at a loss still new questions do arise which I cannot resolve Ps 139.6 Even this knowledge is too wonderfull for me Solomon hath put a question which I think himself could hardly answer Knowest thou how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child Eccls 11.5 Therefore oh my soul let mesing that song of David and if possible with Davids heart I will praise thee Psal 139.14 15 16 17. for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were none of them How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summe of them But I must not I cannot here leave off this delightful Meditation but must again praise the Lord for that he hath not executed the curse of Adam to the uttermost upon us Though sin hath robbed us of many most desirable perfections yet there is that left with which and for which we may glorifie God If we survey the frame and building of this earthly tabernacle we shall find that rare fitness of every part and that symmetry of the whole that we cannot but say its builder and maker is God What shall I say of the several members and particles of our bodies of the scituation of the more noble parts and subordination of the rest of the influences of the higher parts on those that are less noble of the many channels of conveyance whereby the inner parts transmit bloud strength and spirits to the exteriour and most remote What of the beauty strength tenderness majesty and singular faculties of some parts of the contiguities and artificial connexion of all parts what of the sagacity of the five senses the mixture of the four elements the correspondence our bodies have with all creatures the resemblance of the three regions yea of the three heavens c. For which causes Man is called a little world the measure of all things the pattern of the Vniverse the miracle of miracles c. Yea mans body is yet in regard of its majesty strength beauty and noble faculties of its several parts in some measure after the image of God (a) 2 Chr. 16.9 Dan. 9.18 Psal 34.16 Job 40 9. Psal 74.3 Isa 49.16 c. And God himself is pleased to represent his perfections and operations by several parts of the body of man If therefore the serious prying into any one part take up the time and study of the learned insomuch that Galen was turned from Atheism in studying the secrets of mans body and presently praised and acknowledged our Creatour then oh my soul let that which made him a Christian make me a more thankful Christian that I may more zealously glorifie God with my body and may hereafter have all its primitive perfections restored at the Resurrection when God shall raise it in honour and incorruption and make it like the glorious body of Jesus Christ MEDITATION 6. Anatomists themselves are utterly to seek what reason to give for the opening and shutting of the womb But though I know not the natural causes hereof yet I find by the effects that the child is quick within me And oh that I could say with like certainty that though I know not the way of the Spirit or how grace comes in and sin goes out how Christ enters and Satan is dispossessed yet I feel by the effects that whereas lust did once conceive and bring forth sin yet now grace conceives holy motions and brings forth religious actions that whereas my heart was a cage of unclean spirits and barren of goodness yet now Christ is formed within me now I feel by happy effects that grace is quick within me and quickens me to every good work Psal 103.1 Wherefore blesse the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me blesse his holy name Luk. 1.43.49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great
the leaven of Popery for you need not make auricular confession to a Priest nor seek Popish absolution from a Confessor nor expect their injunction of some tedious or ridiculous penance nor esteem penance a Sacrament nor undertake a fruitless or idolatrous pilgrimage or think to satisfie God by some good works for any sin past nor be at cost to purchase an indulgence or to buy a pardon from that man of sinne Onely be faithfull and just in confession to God 1 Joh. 1.9 Psal 38.13.32.5 Isa 33.24 and he will be faithful to forgive Yea as soon as thou resolvest in thine heart with David no longer to conceal thy transgressions but to acknowledge them to God he will forgive Renew this practice as often and with as much sorrow and contrition as you can and the Father of mercies will surely heare thee bemoaning thy self Jer. 31.18 wil remember thine iniquity no more And therefore abound in secret mourning Psal 85.8 Isa 32.6 till thou hearest what God will speak he will speak peace to his people but let them not return again to folly Make it therefore thy chief aim in repenting to be renewed in the inner parts to have a new heart Ezek. 36.26 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 4.24 and a new spirit that so all old things may passe away and all things become new Whereas if you spend never so much time and strength in confession lamentation and supplication and yet your heart unchanged you will notwithstanding return with the swine to her wallowing in the mire How many such penitents hath the Church been pestered with many men in sickness many women when neer their travel have seemed serious converts and have uttered many penitential desires and purposes both to God and man but when once they are delivered they forget their obligations to God and suffer seven Worse devils to enter Mat. is 45 And therefore make as sure work with your deceitful hearts as you can by mournful confession severe mortification more holy conversation c. (a) Thus should good women make amends for their first offence Eve no sooner received an ill motion but she delivers it to Adam so they should no sooner receive good but they should impart it Bish Hall's Contemplation lib. 10 p. 195. Communicate your zeal to others reprove rebuke exhort and warn your family night and day with tears bring forth fruit meet for repentance that others may see you have been with Jesus This do and continue doing while you yet are upon your legs and while you have breath in your nostrils and then you shall find your labour not in vain in the Lord but a means to support you under bodily labour Then you shall see of the travel of your soul when God shall assist you in the hour of travel Therefore gird up the loyns of your mind be intent and sedulous in this great work of making peace with God and he will deliver you in that critical hour Psal 50. â—â— and raise you up that you may glorifie him CHAP. IV. Reading of Scriptures the duty of women with child (a) Qui valt cum Dee semper esse semper debet erare legere Ang de â—emp Ser. â— GOd gave no small gift to the world in giving the light of the Sun which among visible creatures is the highest emblem of his own Essence and glory without which the whole earth would languish and be worse then a howling wilderness But it was a greater to give to our souls understanding and immortality whereby we transcend all sublunary creatures and are capable of communion with God and his Angels without which we could never aspire to Heaven above but must have been slaves to the meanest creatures upon earth And yet it was a far richer benefit to mankind to give us the written Word and the greatest next to Jesus Christ the essential Word which the Father of Lights could have bestowed on the world in comparison of its greater glory the light of the Sun hath no glory By this our understandings are made wise and our immortality made happy The Scriptures are the mysteries of Gods eternal counsel the protraicture of those infinite perfections that lay hidden in his breast from all eternity the written copy of that Law God which was originally written in the heart of Adam the onely supreme rule of good and evil They contain such knowledge as will enlarge ravish and transform a teachable and studious soul In the volumn of this book it is written of Christ that God of Gods Psal 40. â—â— that Head of Angels that King of Kings whose Incarnation is the Mysterie of Mysteries and whose work of Redemption is the summe of all Mercies In a word in them is an exact map of the heavenly Canaan an exact delineation of the way thereunto and a full account of the deeds and evidences of our inheritance therein How abominable then is the blasphemy of the apostate Papists (a) B. Jewels reply to Hard. Art 15. fol. 518. who equal the Pope or a Councel or Traditions with the Scripture and speak dishonourably of the authorityand sufficiency of the sacred Volumn Doctor Jackson on the Creed lib. 2. sect 1. ch 1. pag. 238. ad 405. And how intolerable is that bloudy crew Alphonsus Castrens de punit haeret lib. 3. Cap. 6. which will inflict the most cruel deaths on those of the Laity that procure a Bible in their vulgar tongue (b) Scripta divina haereticorum fraudes convincit furta detegir Tertul. lib. de Trin. unwilling they are that their folly should be made manifest to all men and women knowing that ignorance is the mother of their idolatrous devotions But to leave controversies let me go on and remember those women to whom I speak that it is their duty to read their happiness to enjoy 1 Basil by his Nurse Macrina Bas cp 74. 〈◊〉 Polycarp ad Philippenses Origen in Levit hom 9. August in Psal 33. Heron. in Coloss 3. Chrysost in Joh. â—om 1. â—libi saepiùs and should be their delight to peruse the holy Scriptures Certain we are that God commanded all Parents to teach their children the words of his Law and that accordingly Solomon was instructed by his Mother Apollos by Priscilla Timothy by his Grandmother Lois 2 Both the Greek and Latine Fathers did use with all vehemency to exhort their hearers to get them Bibles and read the Scriptures at home and to talke of them to each other without exception of sex or age Yea saith a Popish writer lest women should be thought to be excluded from the study of the Scriptures there is a tradition that (a) M. Maâ—ulus Spalatens de vitâ per exempla religiose instit l. 2. cap. 5. Trap. on Luk. 1 51. And doubtlesse the elect Lady to whom St. John wrot an Epistle might as lawfully read other Scriptures as that Ep. the Mother of our Lord
things and holy is his name And whence is this to me that the grace of Christ should come to me MEDITATION 7. Rebecca conceived Gen. 25.22 23. and the children strugled within her and she said If it be so why am I thus that is if I am heard of God in my request and am with child by his blessing whence is this strugling this painful conflict and strange unquietness of the fruit of my womb And she went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two nations are in thy womb c. So when I look into my self and observe the commotions that are in the womb of my heart I conclude Surely there are two nations within me the flesh with all its motions lucting against the spirit and its grace Gal. 5.17 and the Spirit with its gracious influences alway striving against the sinfulness of my carnal part Now blessed be God that seeing sin will yet keep possession that it hath no quiet abode within me but meets with reluctancy and opposition from my spirituall part But oh wretched creature that I am how often is evil present and prevalent with me how many are those pangs of sorrow those sighs and grones that my mischievous and restless corruptions cause within me But if it be so that the power of the most High hath overshadowed me and true grace be implanted in my soule then I shall seek to the Lord that he would cause the better part in me to be the more prevailing part that he would water and give encrease to these tender beginnings and give me at last a safe and happy deliverance from this body of death MEDITATION 8. If men strive and hurt a woman with child Exod. 21.22 23. so that her fruit depart from her and yet 〈◊〉 mischief follow he shall be surely punished c. Women with child are liable to many dangers A fall a bruise an accidentall stroke a fright a strain the taking somewhat that proves expulsive or the disappointment of somewhat they longed for these and such other contingencies are noxious to them and often-times cause abortion or the mischance of her fruit departing from her Such was the case of the Church when it was with child with many Converts Rev. 12.2 3. the great red Dragon watched the destruction of her and of her fruit And thus is with every repenting soul What security soever there be among those careless women that are at ease Isa 32.9 10 11. how little inward care or sorrow they feel while they forget God how unacquainted soever with the hurt and smart of sin or Satans striving with them before they are acquainted with God yet no sooner do they espouse themselves to Christ and conceive purposes of holy living and begin to be fruitful in any grace but they shall have many adversaries in the world and especially the god of this world striving against them to afright them to tempt them to receive such principles company suggestions as may quench their graces or to deprive them of that Spiritual food they long for or to intice them to straine their consciences or some way or other to cause them to fall that they may be wounded bruised c. and the fruit of grace depart from them But oh my soul hath God such care of the unborn infant as to provide a speciall law in its behalfe and will he not much more take care of that grace which he hath begotten in my Soul Oh my God keep me that the Evill One touch me not MEDITATION 9. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children As the first general curse Gen. 3.16 In dying thou shalt dy brought not onely the pains of death but intended also all the miseries of our life so this particular curse upon women brings not only pain in travel but comprehends all the infirmities of Child-bearing I find that the child in my womb brings many weaknesses and aches upon me but oh how sad and deplorable are those deeper sicknesses and maladies which I have brought upon it It s body partaking of my substance partakes unavoidably of my natural pollution It s Soul though it come immediately from the Father of Spirits yet I know not how is upon its infusion into this tender infant subjected to the common misery of the Children of Adam who having lost the image and likenesse of God sinne and corruption must needs follow I am an unclearne vessel Psal 58.3 sa 48.8 and how can any clean thing come out of me Oh my soul what need have I to be sanctified throughout both in Body and Soul and Spirit And Oh my God repair by thy grace what sin hath made so defective in me and mine MEDITATION 10 Our blessed Saviour and Great Prophet Jesus Christ foretelling the miseries that should shortly come on Judea Jerusalem sayes Wo unto them that are with Child Mat. 24.19 Lu. 23.29 and to them that give suck in those days And in another Evangelist Behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never have and the paps that never gave suck And indeed of all persons none more miserable in the time of War than women with child or women that give suck because their care is double and their persons uncapable of flying and shifting for their lives as those who are single may and do And of all murthers none more horrible in all its circumstances 2 Kin. 8.12 Lam. 5.11 then to rip up women with child Wherefore oh my soul let me be thankfull to my God that there is peace in our borders and any quietness and safety in my habitation and that I am free from those terrours and affrights with which many others in a time of common calamity are undone Oh how many Women with their unborn infants have been butchered in many places in ages past and martyred by blood-thirsty Papists in these later ages of which histories are too plentiful And if there be now any in my condition in any place especially among Christians that is exposed daily to the rage of a devouring Sword the Lord be pleased either to restrain the Enemy and the Avenger Psal 8.2 Rev. 6.10 or to avenge the cause of the murthered that according to thy own Law they may not go unpunished but may give life for life Yea Lord hear the crie of the oppressed and give their adversaries blood to drink for they are worthy MEDITATION 11. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed whithin you Where any place is blest with a painfull Minister and Pastour after Gods own heart Gal. 4.19 they have in them much of the Apostle's temper For when I consider their painfull studies their sighes and teares their spending their spirits in ardent Prayers and laborious Preaching their compassionate exhortations passionate supplications and their giving themselves wholly to these things 1
therefore lesse minded while my vile body hath been pampered and delicately kept and then I must appear before an impartial Judge whose eyes are as flames of fire and how shall I shall escape or endure his sentence of condemnation who have neglected so great salvation Oh Eternity that amazing word Heb. 2.3 that astonishing thing who can number the millions of years contained in Eternity Who can spie either bank or bottom in the Ocean of eternity Well if I were not certain but had onely a suspicion that my soul shall have eternal recompences according to its works yet why should I adventure upon sin If there were neither Hell nor Heaven yet sin is hatefull and filthy in it self and holiness and righteousnesse is most eligible and amiable for it self So that were I never so much an infidel yet reason will tell me that onely piety can beget in my minde true tranquillity But surely my Creator is true and therefore will in another world bring every work into judgement Eccles 12.14 and by rewards and punishments vindicate for ever that honour of his holiness which is so little regarded upon earth Having with such things as these brought your mind to consider of the nature and danger of your sins endeavour in the next place to set your self to weeping supplication and fasting but still as your weakness will beare for God will have mercy and not sacrifice and therefore an unseasonable or intolerable measure of religious melancholly which may endanger your body is from the devil that murtherer acknowledge your offences and seek the face of God And be not slight or weary in this work but the more your heart draws back and the sooner it would give over as if you had now done enough the more suspect your self and stir up your self to call upon God Do not this work by halves but bring it to some good issue and while your heart is in any serious temper and conscience begins to accuse listen to it lest God give you over to final impenitency and unbelief and then seven worse devils will enter and you will soon be ripe for Hell Wherefore I tell you again you must upon the sight of your sins bend your knees to the Father of Mercies flying to Christ for refuge and laying hold upon the horns of the Altar plead the all-sufficiency of that sacrifice that Christ offered condemning your self again and again and casting your selfe upon the rich and free grace of God in Jesus Christ Resolve with seriousness and sincerity to live in newness of life Gal. 5.16 and to walk not in the flesh but in the spirit And seeing of your self you can do nothing exactly and acceptably good yet let me tell you by the way you may doe more then you doe by your own strength and the help of that common assistance God hath already given you and you may forbear many sins if you will A as appears by the different carriage of rude sinners when they are in civil or religious company they can then keep in their oaths and curses if they list and therefore do the best you may and blame God of backwardness to help you if you can seeing I say your own strength will not reach so far as to change your heart and life and bring you to be truly holy therefore improve the Covenant of grace wherein God doth promise to put a new heart within us Ezek. 36.25 26 27. and to cause us to walk in his statutes beg of him daily to work in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure If you thus do let your travel come when it will and whatever become of your body your soul cannot miscarry If also you have wronged any by slander or unrighteous dealing resolve to make them speedy satisfaction If you have malice against any person or party whatever lay it wholly aside If you have been wronged by any in your name or otherwise forgive them Mat. 6.14.15 and so will your heavenly Father forgive you But if in any thing there happen a difficulty about restitution reconcilation c. which you are perplexed about take the advice of some pious and skilful Pastor an interpreter one of a thousand Job 33.23 24. who may shew to man his righteousness and who may guide your feet into the way of peace and obey their advice speedily Also if you be yet puzled about the right performance of your secret duties and doubt you have not taken the right way or that any doubts oppress your mind concerning the pardon of your sinnes then cast your eyes upon such as fear the Lord how much soever you despised or hated them before such as have mourned in secret for your pride and have earnestly longed for your conversion and are themselves practitioners in religious retirements With them are the secrets of the Lord. Ps 25.14 1 Cor. 2.15 Gal. 6.1 And therefore unbosome your self to them of such things as are meet to be revealed and hearken rather to their counsel then to the discouragements of Satan and get them to entertain you into their company and to remember you in their ordinary and daily prayers or in some more solemn address to God in your behalf And it is much to be hoped that the interest of these favourites in the Court of Heaven may facilitate your reconciliation and hasten from God an answer of peace However if after the use of these and such other meanes inward fears do still remain yet resolve in despight of the Tempter to continue in a way of duty and patiently wait upon that God for the joy of his salvation (a) Psal 40.1 1 Pet. 3.20 Ps 33.20 Hos 12.6 Isa 30.18 Lam. 3.25 26. who so long a time waited for your conversion The returning Prodigal though he might take many weary steps in his journey home yet when he draws near his journeys end his father meets him receives him and entertains him with joy So though you cannot in reason expect that God should presently upon your repentance give you assurance of pardon yet let it satisfie you that his Word doth assure you and if you expect any sensible joy he commonly reserves that best wine till the last when you draw nearer to your home in heaven you shall have a clearer fight of his reconciled face Wherefore to end this Mat. 22 11. Heb. 12.14 1 Tim. 2.15 Rom. 6.22 be you careful to put on the wedding garment of Holiness and whenever you die you shall have undoubted welcome to that perpetual Banquet in the Kingdome of Glory Thus I have given a short draught of what I should more largely have insisted upon for the conviction direction and consolation of them who have as yet done nothing or little to purpose in their turning to God But the intended brevity of this Treatise will not permit me to exspatiate on every point CHAP. V. Preparation for death the duty of
with her father-in-law Gen. 38.38 2. Rahab an harlot Heb. 11.31 3. Ruth who came of Moab the son Levi by incest with his own daughter Gen. 19.37 4. Bathsheba and she was guilty of adultery Why is all this but to shew that free grace is no respecter of persons except it be to have most tender regard to the most miserable object and to pardon those most readily who see themselves most guilty and to wash them as white as snow whose sins were of a scarlet dye And for your further increase of faith I would advise you if you can conveniently have it that you would with all humility and earnest desires of favour with God go to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ where you may see Christ crucified for you and may receive such symbols and pledges of his good-will towards you as will be so many Seals to his Promises and there you shall find his flesh to be meat indeed Joh. 6.53 54 55.56 and his blood drink indeed He is the living bread which shall strengthen your heart and his love is stronger then wine and shall make glad your heart I doubt that the seldome or careless use of this blessed ordinance is one great cause why so many Christians are of weak faith And if with other endeavours and inquiries for comfort this were more frequently and rightly used we should find their strangeness from God which is the chief cause of their fears to cease and delight in him and love to him and consequently peace of conscience to encrease by this neerer converse and communion with him Mary Magdalene as they say being near her end came and received the Body and Blood of our Lord in the place of their Christian assembly and there comfortably exspired before the Table of the Lord. Also peruse Davids Psalms and as you easily may take notice of those especially that contain complaints of Sin Fear Calamities and also praises to God for hearing and delivering and promises of the like mercy of God to all his people in their several exigencies And sing these Psalms leisurèly and considerately alone by your self You will find the voice to quicken your meditation upon the matter the matter to affect your heart and the blessing of God to attend his owne ordinance who hath commanded us to admonish our selves (a) Eph. 5.19 in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Besides it is most unquestionably pleasant to those good Angels who are ministring Spirits to attend you for good But if you are not satisfied by Promises Sacraments Psalms c. then look beyond all these to the goodness of God which is infinite His goodness is the fountain of the Promises and therefore it is that the streams make glad the people of God Now it is an acceptable work of Faith if we cannot see a Promise speaking directly to us or are not able to apply them yet even then to cast our selves upon infinite goodness to trust in the name of the Lord Isa 50 10. Psal 9.10 and to stay our selves upon our God For his Goodness contains more in it then Promises do express It never entred into the tongues of men or Angels fully to express the heighth and depth and length and breadth thereof Let this therefore keep you in a dutiful and quiet expectation of comfort that there is mercy with God an inexhaustible treasure of mercy riches of grace an overflowing fulness which can as well cease to be as to be faithful and compassionate Isa 57.15 in dwelling with the contrite and humble to revive the hearts of the humble and to revive the spirits of the contrite ones CHAP. XIII Trusting in the Lord for deliverance the duty of women with child THough trusting in God exclude not the use of means and Gods providence over us doth not discharge us from provision for our selves and preventing what we can of the danger and hurt of any approaching evil yet it surely excludes our trust in any thing besides him And therefore whatever estate friends helps strength you have yet trust not to these For God onely brings to the birth and gives strength to bring forth Rachels Midwife could bid hen be of good comfort but she could not give her the comfort of a happy deliverance Miserable comforters are Midwives Neighbours and Kindred if God withhold the fruit of the womb And if he speak the word after others have tormented the labouring woman and tried themselves with fruitless endeavours and at last given over any hopes of success I say if he speak the word she shall so on be delivered for He shutteth and none can open he openeth and none can shut he letteth and none can work he worketh and none can let He can let out the imprisoned infant raise up the fainting mother bring strength out of weakness and life out of death Wherefore furnishing your self with such promises as he hath made to his people in all their extremities strengthen your faith hope in the Lord and quietly wait for his salvation Among the many promises of this kind I shall mention a few which are obvious and leave you to observe the rest in your own private reading His anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life Weeping may endure for a night Ps 30.5 but joy cometh in the morning For I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth Isa 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the soules which I have made Like as a father pitieth his children Psal 103.15 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Isa 27.9 and this is all the fruit to take away his sin When we are judged 1 Cor. 11.32 we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world For our light affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more eternal and exceeding weight of glory He maketh sore Job 5.13 and he bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole He shall deliver thee in six troubles Ver. 19. yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee Behold Ps 33.18 the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine The righteous cry Ps 34.17 and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their troubles God is our refuge and strength Ps 46.1 a very present help in trouble Fear thou not Isa 41.10 for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse For God hath comforted his people Isa 49.14 and will have